Method and device for collecting transportation vehicle-based data records for predetermined route sections

ABSTRACT

A method and a device for transmitting vehicle-based environment data of a transportation vehicle travelling on a predetermined section of a road to a backend device for collecting data records relating to the specified section of the road, wherein the backend includes a master data backend and a vehicle data backend that are independent of each other, including registration of the transportation vehicle with the actual vehicle identification number with the master data backend via a wireless communication, transmitting a pseudo-vehicle identification number that is different from the actual vehicle identification number to the transportation vehicle on the part of the master data backend, wherein the allocation of the pseudo-vehicle identification number to the actual vehicle identification number is known outside the transportation vehicle exclusively to the master data backend, and submitting data records or summaries of data records to the vehicle data backend using the pseudo-vehicle identification number exclusively.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This patent application claims priority to German Patent Application No.10 2018 008 730.2, filed 7 Nov. 2018, the disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

SUMMARY

Illustrative embodiments relate to a method for transmittingtransportation vehicle-based data to a backend computer, referred to asa backend, for the collection of data records related to predeterminedroute sections as well as a corresponding device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A disclosed embodiment is explained below based on the drawing. In theFIGURE:

FIG. 1 shows the device for the generation of data records aboutpredetermined route sections in a schematic representation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In recent years, a wide range of interactive electric series systemshave been developed to support the driver. The integrated assistance andcomfort systems use various sensors to measure the environment of thetransportation vehicle to make the journey safer and more comfortable,thus generating up-to-date data on the environment currently beingtraversed.

Since the transportation vehicles are already equipped with varioussensor systems, it makes sense to collect this data and use it acrossthe board. This trend is reinforced by two changed framework conditions.On the one hand, previously offered optional systems have becomestandard equipment due to the ever-increasing safety requirements of,for example, NCAP (NCAP: New Car Assessment Program, or the European NewCar Assessment Program). On the other hand, the compulsion to use theelectronic emergency call system, also known as eCall, requires mobilephone connections in the transportation vehicle by law. Therefore, theenvironment data can be collected and communicated directly in alocation-related and time-synchronized manner.

Different data classes are recorded in the transportation vehicleitself. As far as the environment is concerned, the data are subdividedas follows:

-   -   geoinformation relating to geographical phenomena directly and        indirectly linked to a position relative to the Earth,    -   traffic data, i.e., a description of the conditions of all        objects involved in traffic,    -   location-related event data, such as local hazard points that        occur on a point-by-point basis, and    -   location-related status data, i.e., continuously recordable data        such as temperature, parking space occupancy, traffic light        status, variable traffic signs, etc.

In previous systems for the determination of swarm data, however, inmost cases the data are simply forwarded from the transportation vehicledirectly to the backend, wherein the determined data packets arerecorded in the transportation vehicle and sent to the backend withoutmodification. Intelligent processing is usually not done. Furthermore,the data transmitted to the backend may allow conclusions to be drawnabout the data-collecting transportation vehicles, since anonymizationof the transmitted data is not necessarily guaranteed in accordance withthe data protection regulations and thus the privacy of the datatransportation vehicle user is not protected.

Document DE 10 2011 106 295 A1 concerns a method for the bi-directionaltransfer of data between transportation vehicles and a service provider,with the provision of information data via a data infrastructure cloudthat can be received by the transportation vehicles and originated bythe service provider and the provision of traffic data describing atraffic condition and originating from transportation vehicles. Toenable the secure bi-directional transfer of the data, an exclusiveprovision of the traffic data to the service provider via a backendserver device operated by a security operator is provided. Abi-directional transfer of data from the transportation vehicle toseveral providers takes place, wherein the transportation vehicleobtains data from the backend, such as traffic flow data, and respondswith data of its own that describe the current traffic situation, forexample. When the data are passed in the reverse direction, a securitybackend is interposed, which carries out identification of thetransportation vehicle and may be able to forward the data anonymously.

Document DE 10 2013 205 392 A1 concerns a backend device for providinginformation for driver assistance functions of transportation vehicles,which comprises a plurality of application units, a database and aninterface unit. The application units are each set up to provideinformation for at least one driver assistance function of thetransportation vehicle for transmission to the transportation vehicles.The database stores information from an environment model. The interfaceunit is assigned to the database and provides access to informationstored in the database, wherein the application units are each connectedto the interface unit to call up information stored in the database viathe interface unit.

Document DE 10 2014 206 545 A1 describes a method of transmitting databetween at least one data access node, in particular, a transportationvehicle antenna, of a transportation vehicle and at least one terminalthat is external to the transportation vehicle, wherein data to be sentfrom the transportation vehicle are at least partially anonymized beforebeing passed on. Furthermore, the document describes a communicationsystem and a data access node for transmitting data, wherein theidentity of the transportation vehicle can be inferred from the data.

Disclosed embodiments provide a method for transmitting transportationvehicle-based data to a backend for the generation of route-based datarecords and a corresponding device, wherein drawing conclusions from thetransmitted and collected data records regarding the private sphere ofthe drivers of the transportation vehicle collecting the data isimpossible or at least made more difficult.

The disclosed method for transmitting transportation vehicle-basedenvironment data of a transportation vehicle traversing a predeterminedsection of the road to a backend for raising data records relevant tothe specified road section, wherein the backend includes a master databackend and a transportation vehicle data backend that are designed andset up independently of each other, includes:

-   -   registering the transportation vehicle with the actual        transportation vehicle identification number thereof with the        master data backend via wireless communication,    -   transmitting a pseudo-vehicle identification number that is        different from the actual transportation vehicle identification        number to the transportation vehicle by the master data backend,        wherein the allocation of the pseudo-vehicle identification        number to the actual transportation vehicle identification        number is known only to the master data backend outside the        transportation vehicle,    -   submitting data records or summaries of data records, so-called        headers, to the transportation vehicle data backend using the        pseudo-vehicle identification number exclusively.

Because the backend consists of two independent units and only themaster data backend knows the actual identity of the individualtransportation vehicles, wherein the actual identity is not known to thedata-collecting transportation vehicle data backend, the privacy of thetransportation vehicles can be protected.

Optionally, the pseudo-vehicle identification number is generated fromthe transportation vehicle identification number by a hash function. Inthis way, the transportation vehicle identification number can always beprecisely transferred to the pseudo-vehicle identification number, whichdoes not apply to the reverse direction, so that the pseudo-vehicleidentification number can be used in the method without endangering theprivacy of the transportation vehicle.

Optionally, the assignment of the pseudo-vehicle identification numberto the actual transportation vehicle identification number is changed atpredetermined time intervals. In this case, the predetermined timeinterval can be one day, half a day, or at least 1 hour.

Further the assignment of the pseudo-vehicle identification number tothe actual transportation vehicle identification number may be changedat random time intervals. In this case, the random time interval may beat least 1 hour.

Changing the assignment of the pseudo-vehicle identification number tothe actual transportation vehicle identification number, i.e., changingthe pseudo-vehicle identification numbers at predetermined or randomtime intervals, will improve the security of the sphere of privacy ofthe transportation vehicle or driver.

Also optionally, the transportation vehicle generates data about thesurroundings with the environment sensors, summarizes the data into acurrent data record concerning the predetermined route section as afunction of the recording time in a data aggregator and generates aheader related to the current data record, which is transferred togetherwith the pseudo-vehicle identification number to the transportationvehicle data backend, where as a function of the header it is decidedwhether the corresponding data record is requested by the transportationvehicle data backend or not. In this way it is ensured that thetransmission path from the transportation vehicle to the transportationvehicle data backend is used effectively and that bandwidth is kept aslow as possible.

Also optionally, the request for the data record from the transportationvehicle data backend is made using the pseudo-vehicle identificationnumber, which is fed to the master data backend with the request. Themaster data backend, which is aware of the assignment of thepseudo-vehicle identification number to the transportation vehicleidentification number, prompts the transportation vehicle, using thetransportation vehicle identification number, to send the requested datarecord to the transportation vehicle data backend, wherein thistransmission from the transportation vehicle to the transportationvehicle data backend is again carried out using the pseudo-vehicleidentification number. In this way it is ensured that the transportationvehicle data backend is not aware of the actual transportation vehicleidentification number.

Optionally, the request for a data record relating to a predeterminedsection of the route is made by a customer who communicates with thetransportation vehicle data backend exclusively via an interface. Inthis way, the customer may at most be in possession of thepseudo-vehicle identification number and not in possession of thetransportation vehicle identification number.

Optionally, the customer determines the measurement parameters of thedata record concerning a given section of the route, so that thetransportation vehicle data backend can determine on the basis of theheaders supplied by the transportation vehicle or transportationvehicles whether corresponding data records are available and can beretrieved from the transportation vehicle or transportation vehicles andmade available to the customer.

The disclosed device for transmitting transportation vehicle-basedenvironment data of a transportation vehicle travelling on apredetermined road section to a backend for collecting data recordsrelating to the specified road section, wherein the device is set up andconfigured for the implementation of the method described above,includes:

-   -   at least one transportation vehicle with an environment sensor        arrangement, a data aggregator and a communication device,    -   a master data backend that generates a pseudo-vehicle        identification number as a function of the actual transportation        vehicle identification number of the transportation vehicle and        feeds it to the transportation vehicle,    -   a transportation vehicle data backend with which the        transportation vehicle communicates exclusively with the        pseudo-vehicle identification number, wherein the transportation        vehicle data backend comprises a communication device for        communication with the transportation vehicle or transportation        vehicles, a data handling device for processing the headers and        data records of the transportation vehicle or transportation        vehicles, a data request device for requesting data records via        the master data backend and an interface for communication with        a customer.

The so-called “poison cabinet” concept described above for theprotection of the sphere of privacy of the driver provides for anorganizational and physical separation of the backend computer with thefollowing principle.

Only the master data backend, also referred to as the MBB, knows thecomplete identity of the customer transportation vehicle as well as theequipment of the transportation vehicle. The task of the master databackend MBB is to purposefully send the measurement orders to thecustomer transportation vehicle and to transmit a pseudo-vehicleidentification number to the transportation vehicle. However, the MBBwill not receive any data of the transportation vehicle.

The transportation vehicle data backend, also known as the ACDC for“Automotive Cloud Data Collector”, receives the data determined by thetransportation vehicle—but only under the pseudonym of thepseudo-vehicle identification number—and processes the collectedtransportation vehicle data for forwarding.

In this way, it is not possible to draw conclusions about the identityof the data-generating transportation vehicle within the ACDC with theexisting data or the data records transmitted to the provider.

FIG. 1 shows in a schematic representation the device for transmittingtransportation vehicle-based data to a backend computer for generatingdata records. A transportation vehicle 1 is travelling on a currentsection of the route and is using a suitable sensor arrangement 2 togenerate environment data for the relevant section of the route on whichthe transportation vehicle is currently located. The data generated bythe sensor arrangement 2 for the section of the route currently beingused is fed to a data aggregator 3 of the transportation vehicle 1,which summarizes the data into data records on the one hand and, on theother hand produces a summary, a so-called header, for each data recordgenerated. Furthermore, the transportation vehicle 1 comprises acommunication device 4, by which the transportation vehicle 1communicates wirelessly with external devices.

In the example of FIG. 1, the communication device 4 of thetransportation vehicle 1 communicates bidirectionally with a master databackend 5, which knows the complete identity of the transportationvehicle 1 and its equipment. Thus, the transportation vehicle 1 with itstransportation vehicle identification number, VIN for short, registerswith the master data backend 5 via a radio connection when thetransportation vehicle is commissioned, so that the master data backend5 can communicate with the transportation vehicle 1. Furthermore, themaster data backend 5 assigns a virtual or pseudo-vehicle identificationnumber, or PVIN, to the transportation vehicle 1 that the transportationvehicle 1 will use to transmit measured data records to other instances.In other words, only the master data backend 5 knows the actualtransportation vehicle identification number VIN of the transportationvehicle 1.

The transportation vehicle 1 also communicates in a one-sided mannerwith the transportation vehicle data backend 6 by sending summaries ofthe measured data records for a given section of the route, so-calledheaders, on the one hand or by sending complete data records of apredetermined section of the route on request from the master databackend 5 on the other hand, wherein both the headers transferred to thetransportation vehicle data backend 6 and the complete data records onlyhave the pseudo-vehicle identification number PVIN in addition toidentification characteristics such as time stamps and routeidentification. The actual transportation vehicle identification numberVIN does not appear in the communication of the headers or the completedata records to the transportation vehicle data backend 6.

In FIG. 1, the transportation vehicle data backend 6 includes multiplesubsections. Thus, the data transmitted by the transportation vehicle 1are received by a communication device 7 of the transportation vehicledata backend 6 via a wireless communication connection, wherein in thecommunication device 7 processing of the received data takes place in aformat that can be processed in the data handling 8 of thetransportation vehicle data backend 6. Furthermore, the transportationvehicle data backend 6 includes a data request device 9, which instructsthe master data backend 5 to request the transportation vehicle 1 totransfer complete data records to the transportation vehicle databackend 6. Furthermore, the transportation vehicle data backend 6comprises an interface 10, which enables bi-directional communicationwith a client or customer 11.

A typical exemplary procedure of the method for determiningroute-related data is as follows: the transportation vehicle 1 uses thesensor arrangement 2 thereof to measure data about the currentenvironment while travelling on a section of the route, for example, theaforementioned environment data such as geoinformation, traffic data,location-related event data and/or location-related state data that areaggregated by a data aggregator 3 and stored in data records of thetransportation vehicle 1. Furthermore, in the data aggregator 3 of thetransportation vehicle 1, a summary of each data record is carried outto form a header. This header is continuously transmitted by thecommunication device 4 of the transportation vehicle 1 to thecommunication device 7 of the transportation vehicle data backend 6, istransformed there into a suitable format and is fed to the data handling8 for further processing and storage. The transportation vehicletransmitting the header 1 identifies itself to the transportationvehicle data backend 6 exclusively by its virtual or pseudo-vehicleidentification number PVIN.

A client or customer 11 passes an instruction via the interface 10 ofthe transportation vehicle data backend 6 to collect environment datafrom one or more specified sections of a road or motorway, wherein it ispossible to specify further boundary conditions, such as, for example,the number of measurements per section of the route and/or the desiredmeasurement time intervals. These requirements are passed on to the datahandling 8 of the transportation vehicle data backend 6, which uses thedatabase thereof to check whether the desired data records may bepresent in a transportation vehicle that is currently travelling on thesections of the route desired by the customer 11, for example, thetransportation vehicle 1 mentioned in FIG. 1.

If the data handling 8 of the transportation vehicle data backend 6 hasdetected that there are 1 data records in the transportation vehiclethat meet the requirements of the customer 11 on the basis of thepresent header of the transportation vehicle 1, the data handling 8commissions the data request 9 with the procurement of the entire datarecords available in the transportation vehicle 1.

As a result, the data request 9 commissions the master data backend 5 toobtain this data and transmits the pseudo-vehicle identification numberPVIN to the master data backend 5, since the actual transportationvehicle identification number VIN is not known to the transportationvehicle data backend 6.

Due to the assignment for data acquisition on the part of the datarequest 9, the master data backend 5 uses the pseudo-vehicleidentification number PVIN to determine the actual transportationvehicle identification number VIN and causes the communication device 4of the transportation vehicle 1 to transmit the complete data recordsbelonging to the header or headers to the communication device 7 of thetransportation vehicle data backend 6.

In the handling device 8, the requested data records are processedsuitably for the customer 11 and forwarded to the customer 11 via theinterface 10. To protect the privacy of the transportation vehicle 1,the data records can be masked even further in the handling device 8,for example, by the transferred data records being obfuscated spatiallyand/or temporally.

Since the transportation vehicle data backend 6 does not know the actualtransportation vehicle identification number VIN and, if necessary,further obfuscation of the data records transmitted to the customer 11is carried out, it is hardly possible or it is impossible for thecustomer 11 to draw conclusions about the transportation vehicle 1 fromthe transmitted data records, so that the privacy of the transportationvehicle 1 is guaranteed in terms of data law.

To increase security, it is also possible that a change of thepseudo-vehicle identification number PVIN is made on the part of themaster data backend 5 at predetermined or random time intervals. Forexample, an hourly or daily change of the pseudo-vehicle identificationnumber PVIN can be used as a predetermined time interval. For example,in the event of a random change of the pseudo-vehicle identificationnumber, a minimum time interval of 1 hour can be set.

Furthermore, the pseudo-vehicle identification number used may begenerated from the transportation vehicle identification number by ahash function. In this way, the transportation vehicle identificationnumber can always be precisely transferred to the pseudo-vehicleidentification number, which does not apply to the reverse direction.

REFERENCE CHARACTER LIST

-   1 Transportation vehicle-   2 Sensor arrangement-   3 Data aggregator of the transportation vehicle-   4 Communication device-   5 Master data backend-   6 Transportation vehicle data backend-   7 Communication device-   8 Data handling of transportation vehicle data backend-   9 Data request device-   10 Interface between transportation vehicle data backend and    customer-   11 Customer/user

1. A device for transmitting vehicle-based environment data of atransportation vehicle travelling on a predetermined section of road toa backend device for collecting data records relating to the specifiedsection of the road, wherein the device comprises: a transportationvehicle environment sensor arrangement; a transportation vehicle dataaggregator; and a transportation vehicle communication device, wherein amaster data backend that generates a pseudo-vehicle identificationnumber as a function of the actual transportation vehicle identificationnumber of the transportation vehicle feeds the pseudo-vehicleidentification number to the transportation vehicle that includes thedevice, wherein a transportation vehicle data backend with which thetransportation vehicle communicates exclusively with the pseudo-vehicleidentification number, wherein the transportation vehicle data backendincludes a communication device for communication with thetransportation vehicle or transportation vehicles, a data handlingdevice for processing the headers and data records of the transportationvehicle, a data request device for requesting data records via themaster data backend, and an interface for communication with a customer.2. The device of claim 1, wherein the pseudo-vehicle identificationnumber is generated by a hash function from the transportation vehicleidentification number.
 3. The device of claim 2, wherein the assignmentof the pseudo-vehicle identification number to the actual transportationvehicle identification number is changed at predetermined timeintervals.
 4. The device of claim 3, wherein the predetermined timeinterval is one day, half a day or at least 1 hour.
 5. The device ofclaim 1, wherein the assignment of the pseudo-vehicle identificationnumber to the actual transportation vehicle identification number ischanged at random time intervals.
 6. The device of claim 5, wherein therandom time interval is at least 1 hour.
 7. The device of claim 1,wherein the transportation vehicle with the environment sensorarrangement generates data for the surroundings, summarizes the datainto a current data record concerning the given route section as afunction of the recording time in a data aggregator and generates aheader related to the current data record, which is transferred togetherwith the pseudo-vehicle identification number to the transportationvehicle data backend, where it is decided as a function of the headerwhether or not the corresponding data record is requested by thetransportation vehicle data backend.
 8. The device of claim 7, whereinthe request of the data record from the transportation vehicle databackend is fed to the master data backend using the pseudo-vehicleidentification number, and the master data backend requests thetransportation vehicle to transmit the requested data record to thetransportation vehicle data backend using the transportation vehicleidentification number, wherein this transmission to the transportationvehicle data backend is carried out using the pseudo-vehicleidentification number.
 9. The device of claim 8, wherein the request fordata records relating to a specified section of the route is made by acustomer that communicates with the transportation vehicle data backendexclusively via an interface.
 10. The device of claim 9, wherein thecustomer determines the measurement parameters of the data recordconcerning a given section of the route, so that the transportationvehicle data backend determines whether corresponding data records areretrieved from the transportation vehicle or transportation vehicles andmade available to the customer based on the headers supplied by thetransportation vehicle or transportation vehicles.
 11. A method fortransmitting transportation vehicle-based environment data of atransportation vehicle travelling on a predetermined section of road toa backend device for collecting data records relating to the specifiedsection of the road, wherein the backend device includes a master databackend and a transportation vehicle data backend that are independentof each other, the method comprising: registering the transportationvehicle with the actual transportation vehicle identification numberwith the master data backend via a wireless communication; transmittinga pseudo-vehicle identification number that is different from the actualtransportation vehicle identification number to the transportationvehicle on the part of the master data backend, wherein the assignmentof the pseudo-vehicle identification number to the actual transportationvehicle identification number is known outside the transportationvehicle exclusively to the master data backend; and submitting datarecords or summaries of data records, so-called headers, to thetransportation vehicle data backend using the pseudo-vehicleidentification number exclusively.
 12. The method of claim 11, whereinthe pseudo-vehicle identification number is generated by a hash functionfrom the transportation vehicle identification number.
 13. The method ofclaim 11, wherein the assignment of the pseudo-vehicle identificationnumber to the actual transportation vehicle identification number ischanged at predetermined time intervals.
 14. The method of claim 13,wherein the predetermined time interval is one day, half a day or atleast 1 hour.
 15. The method of claim 11, wherein the assignment of thepseudo-vehicle identification number to the actual transportationvehicle identification number is changed at random time intervals. 16.The method of claim 15, wherein the random time interval is at least 1hour.
 17. The method of claim 11, wherein the transportation vehiclewith the environment sensor arrangement generates data for thesurroundings, summarizes the data into a current data record concerningthe given route section as a function of the recording time in a dataaggregator and generates a header related to the current data record,which is transferred together with the pseudo-vehicle identificationnumber to the transportation vehicle data backend, where it is decidedas a function of the header whether or not the corresponding data recordis requested by the transportation vehicle data backend.
 18. The methodof claim 17, wherein the request of the data record from thetransportation vehicle data backend is fed to the master data backendusing the pseudo-vehicle identification number, and the master databackend requests the transportation vehicle to transmit the requesteddata record to the transportation vehicle data backend using thetransportation vehicle identification number, wherein this transmissionto the transportation vehicle data backend is carried out using thepseudo-vehicle identification number.
 19. The method of claim 17,wherein the request for data records relating to a specified section ofthe route is made by a customer that communicates with thetransportation vehicle data backend exclusively via an interface. 20.The method of claim 19, wherein the customer determines the measurementparameters of the data record concerning a given section of the route,so that the transportation vehicle data backend determines whethercorresponding data records are retrieved from the transportation vehicleor transportation vehicles and made available to the customer based onthe headers supplied by the transportation vehicle or transportationvehicles.